What Remains
by Beth Winter
Summary: When the wars are over, what of the Old Republic remains in the memory of the New one? Introspection, series of short stories. Part four now up.
1. Aere Perennius

Author's Note: This is a series of drabbles on a single theme. Characters and settings are property of George Lucas.

AERE PERENNIUS

The twisting support structure reminded Luke of the tree roots on Dagobah. He supposed it was fitting: the finished monument would portray the heroes of the Rebellion - the roots of the New Republic.

He turned to the artist. The little Toydarian's wings were thrumming with excitement, waiting for his opinion.

"I'm sure it will be splendid once it's completed, Mistress Gorda."

Gorda fluttered her fingers. "Thank you! Do you want to see the model? The Princess told me you didn't take part in deciding the design."

Ï had other things on my mind just then." His shoulder still ached from the blaster burn. "I'd like to see it."

"This way, this way - I put in many Jedi, many people you know-"

Luke let the Toydarian's voice flow over him as he caught sight of the scale model of the monument. Gorda had outdone herself. Stone and steel twisted in a triumphant blaze of flame, and figures emerged from it like ghosts. He saw Leia, Ackbar and Mon Mothma in the top tier, his own face just below, but it was a figure on the bottom level that drew his eyes.

Jedi robes, but with a shadow of the familiar cape. Luke's own eyes, Leia's jaw, a reckless smile that looked alien - had the man ever been that young? And a lightsaber, lit and ready to strike.

"I took the image from archive broadcasts." Gordo lowered her voice. "I don't think people want Vader there."

Luke nodded through the pressure in his throat. The figure to the right of Anakin Skywalker was Kenobi, Obi-Wan rather than Ben, and just as young, with a confident smile. On the other side was someone Luke did not know. A man, an aristocratic face with an elegant beard, the expression noble and kind. The clothes were civilian, but there was a lightsaber clipped to the belt.

"Who's that?"

The little Toydarian smiled as she followed Luke's line of sight. "He was the first to see the evil of Palpatine. He left the Jedi because he wanted to fight him. The other Separatists twisted his intentions, but he was always noble. He formed the ideals we fought for."

Luke nodded. "Count Dooku."

The first hero of the Rebellion.

(FINIS)


	2. Cat in the Cradle

(title inspired by the Harry Chapin song)

CAT IN THE CRADLE

There was a saying: as rare as seeing the stars on Coruscant. But now Han was seeing them as he landed his speeder at the balcony to Leia's apartment. They still had not repaired the battle damage in the industrial quarter, and the power shortage meant that Coruscant's lights were running at less than quarter-strength. Not enough to light up the sky at night.

The stars were beautiful, as always.

Han opened the door quietly, not wanting to wake Leia. Repairs to the Falcon had kept him at the spaceport long past midnight, and he was not looking forward to the lecture.

He need not have bothered. Leia was awake and sitting on the sofa. The data pad she held threw strange shadows on her face.

"Hello, stranger," she said with a smile.

Han grinned. "Hello yourself. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Maybe I got too used to your snoring."

"Yeah, right." He hung up his jacket and rubbed at his eyes. "What kept you up, anyway? Didn't know there was a crisis on."

"There isn't." Leia's hair was down, and it made her face look longer, older. "I really couldn't sleep. Right now I'm reviewing records of the Emperor's rise to power - when we write the Constitution, we should put in safeguards so that it doesn't happen again."

"Probably a good idea." He perched on the back of the sofa, looking over her shoulder. The pad showed a picture of a young girl, dark-haired and dark-eyed, pale and determined. Han wondered if he had seen her before. "She's pretty. Who's she?"

Leia leaned back, propping her head on his thigh. "She's the woman who put Palpatine in power - she called for the vote to make him Chancellor, and later her representative proposed the first set of emergency powers. Later, my father and Mon tried to use her influence over Palpatine to push through some resolution to curb him, but I guess she wasn't as good a puppet for them."

There was something familiar in those eyes, hidden behind layers of ceremonial make-up. "She doesn't look like someone who'd do that."

"I don't know if she was good or evil." Leia sighed and shook her head. "All I know is that our lives would've been much easier if Padme Amidala Naberrie had never been born."

(FINIS)

_when i hung up the phone  
it occurred to me  
he'd grown up just like me  
yeah  
my boy was just like me_


	3. Childish Things

(Inspired by and one line borrowed from Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith, which everyone should buy.)

CHILDISH THINGS

Lando expected to find Leia keeping watch over Luke in the Falcon's sleeping quarters. Instead the princess was curled up on the bed, and the boy sat by her side, tired but awake. He put a finger to his lips and they went back into the corridor.

"We've landed in an abandoned junction station - they used to have these places so that cargos could be exchanged halfway and you only had to worry about your own sector's pirates. I thought I'd distract Leia by exploring the place, but if she's asleep and you're up to it?" Lando did his best to avoid looking at Luke's arm. What was left of it.

"Sure."

Lando let Luke lead the way outside, while he paused to look into the sleeping quarters again. Leia's face was drawn; she looked as if she had been through a battle with Vader and lost a hand herself. He let her sleep.

The dead calm of the station put Luke at ease. A fine coating of dust covered all surfaces, though the restarted air filtering systems were beginning to deal with it. Their boots left sharp-edged marks on the floor.

"I wonder how long this place has been abandoned." Luke ran his hand across a table, gathering up the dust. Twenty years, thirty? Without people and air circulation, there would be no new dust to mark the passage of time.

"Since the Clone Wars, probably - the fighting stopped the small trade and made these stations unnecessary." Calrissian opened a door into what looked like the living quarters. A chair was lying on the floor, and clothes were scattered in a trail from a wall niche to the door. "It looks like they left in a hurry."

Something caught Luke's eye behind the overturned chair. A model of a speeder, and behind it an old starfighter, just as small. "Yeah. The kids even left their toys behind."

Calrissian walked around the room. He bent to pick up other toys - two humanoid figures in cloaks and tunics, one in brown and white, the other in black.

He smiled. "Now that's something I haven't seen in a while. I used to have those, too."

"What are they?" Luke recognized the garb, and the metal rods covered with blue fluorescent paint. Ben had told him the Jedi had been guardians of peace and justice, but did kids play at being Jedi too? That - would make sense, he thought. He remembered that feeling.

_I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my-_

No.

He realized Calrissian was talking.

"I used to have ones just like these - I think they were made on Corellia. My parents took them away when they told us the Jedi were enemies of the Republic. I remember playing at being Jedi; I was usually Kenobi, because I could talk my way out of tight places. That stayed with me, I guess."

Luke found himself smiling. So it was still possible. "Kenobi? Would that be-" _Ben_ "-Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

"Yeah, him. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker."

Suddenly the dusty air felt stifling. Luke's right arm twitched, trying to reach for the dark-clad doll with a hand that was not there.

Calrissian looked at him curiously "No relation of yours?"

"He-"

_Obi-Wan never told you-_

No.

_I am-_

**No.**

_Search your feelings._

"He was my father."

Calrissian whistled. "Then it's Skywalker to save the day again."

"What do you mean, again?" Somehow, breathing came easier now.

"That's how it usually went. The war was going badly, a battle was almost lost, and then there they were. We knew they'd be there. _Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute_ - that's what we always said."

The dolls were meticulously detailed. Anakin Skywalker grinned recklessly, as if nothing could stand in his way. _Guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic._

Things fell into place, and Luke knew where his path would take him.

(FINIS)


	4. Chapter 4

ELEGY (VERT)

When all fires had burned out, they settled to tell tales, each asking others what he should speak about, C3P0 translating when necessary. They sat close together in the cold pre-dawn of Endor.

"My turn again?" Luke made a face. "I'll bore you with sand tales yet. You want womp rats or krayt dragons?"

R2D2 beeped before anyone else could put in a request.

"Uh, Artoo thinks you should tell us about Dagobah, Master Luke." C2P0 sounded apologetic. "He is quite insistent about it, I'm afraid."

R2 beeped again, punctuating it with a short whistle.

"Droid's right," Han added. "You owe us the story, since it had you leaving us in the dust. Twice."

"Okay, okay." Luke took a deep breath. "It all started back on Hoth, after the wampa attacked me. I barely escaped, I was lying in the snow, and then Ben-"

Humans, Ewoks and droids listened intently to Luke's story of his arrival on Dagobah, the dangers of the swamp, and finally the meeting with the old Jedi master.

"Yoda really opened my eyes to a lot of things." Luke looked up at the greying sky. "He showed me there was more to being a Jedi than fighting. He was great _because_ he wasn't a great warrior, because he didn't fight with a lightsaber."

Tired faces nodded their agreement. All except one.

Chewbacca remembered troops and warships, green light and a severed head rolling to rest at his feet.

FINIS


End file.
